May 2015: Marie Herbenstein, deception and disguise of orchid mantis and owl butterflies with @jamohanlon @JohannaMappes and @SebaDeBona

Summary: This month I’m joined by special guest James O’Hanlon from the Australian museum in Sydney for a deception and disguise special. James tells me about his PhD research on mantids that trick bees by mimicking flowers - or do they?! And we discuss a new paper showing that butterfly eyepsots might really be mimicking the eyes of a predator’s own predator. In the Scientific spark I talk to Marie Herbenstein, from Macquarie University in Sydney, who tells me that things might have not gone the way they have if she’d chosen a different research project! <br> <br> <a href="http://archive.org/download/BeepcastMay2015/beepcast201505.mp3">Download the MP3</a><br> <br> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;text-align: center;"> <a href="http://1funny.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/owl-butterfly.jpg" style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1funny.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/owl-butterfly.jpg" height="209" width="320"></a> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> The owl butterfly <span style="background-color: #eeeeee;color: #333333;font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif;font-size: 12px;">Photo Credit: 1funny.com</span> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;text-align: center;"> </div> <br> Quicklinks: <br> <br> <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/jamesohanlonresearch/">James O'Hanlon's webpage</a> <br> <br> <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1806/20150202">Predator mimicry, not conspicuousness, explains the efficacy of butterfly eyespots</a> <br> <br> <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/behaviouralecologymacquarie/">Marie Herbenstein's webpage</a>